Tag: Darin

School Smarm

Today’s strip marks the long-awaited and eagerly-anticipated return of Sophomoric Sightings, the comic strip that Durwood and Pete drew for the Westview High School newspaper back in Act II. It was last seen nearly a decade ago, in early 2007 I believe, when Pete lamented to Chien in the school paper office that he was having to create the whole comic himself since Darin was spending so much time with Jessica.

Honestly, I have a bit of a soft spot for “Sophomoric Sightings”, as it is not unlike my own attempts at cartooning when I was in high school (or, uh, now even)… the simple and inoffensive jokes, avoiding drawing hands whenever possible, significant artwork inconsistencies between panels. If only given the context that they are comic strips within a comic strip about high school, they actually serve their purpose quite well and perhaps exhibit some level of charm.

When given the context that they are literally the only depicted works in a Hollywood storyboard artist’s portfolio, that opinion… changes.

What a Jukeoff

TFH here, starting things off with a hat tip to SoSfDavidO and the rest of the guest author rotation for bringing you the daily snark!

Guest Page Turner Author
June 27, 2015 at 1:50 am
So Funky had the band box repaired…[b]ut he repaired the Bandbox specifically to watch these individuals dance…[i]nstead, they are jamming to the music from the jukebox. Which didn’t need fixing…[a]nd probably worked all along.

I’ll bet Les’ friends cringe anytime he starts a sentence with “I don’t know if you guys know this, but…” With Westview’s cultural totem refurbished and restored to its place of honor, Montoni’s is once again “alive with music”, if not with paying customers. Naturally Les, the walking Wikipedia, cannot resist using the occasion to school his lessers on the history and etymology of the jukebox, and is chastened by Funky—Funky!—for being a buzzkill.

Nick of Time

SoSfDavidO Here, and don’t even try and figure out today’s title, as it’s not punny at all, unlike In today’s strip. It’s the title to a Twilight Zone episode that freaked me out as a kid and I think is fairly appropriate of a comparison to Montoni’s. In it, a young William Shatner is held hostage by the idea he can never leave a little diner because of a tiny mechanical fortune teller that seems to have hold over him.

And here is Darin, almost seemingly stuck in a small diner he can’t escape from either! The mechanical band just seals the deal as far as reminding me of the Twilight Zone episode.

Can anyone ever truly leave Westview?

Darin’ Choice

SoSfDavidO here, and I’m gawking at a well-trod troupe at this point, which is sort of like the pronoun game only the complete opposite. Today’s strip might as well have Darin turn and deliver the last line straight past the 4th wall.

Why does Tombat do this? Does he really think new readers are joining in and trying to follow this mess? In catering to them, he’s putting off his longtime readers with dialog that no one sane would ever speak aloud.

The gears in Les’s head are spinning like Darin just dropped some amazingly profound advice or something but it should be obvious the Lisa cash cow can still be milked. Sure, why not write about Lisa? Maybe it’ll get optioned for a movie!

lisacash